Upgrade Mac Mini to C2D 2.33Ghz or get a Q6600 hackintosh?

[cipherworld]

Hi all,

 

I sold my 2.66Ghz Mac Pro months ago and went for a 1.66Ghz Mac MINI with 2GB RAM, I was very happy with it's performance until now. I want something FAST enough to handle heavy PS tasks but I won't go for a Windows machine or spend C$3500 again. I could now spend C$500 get a C2D 2.33Ghz cpu for my mini but a hackintosh for around C$1000 with similar performance to Mac Pro is VERY tempting. Not only I get more for bucks but also very upgradeable (processor/ram/graphic card). I have no clue how quiet can a hackintosh be but I can't live with noticeable fan noise (my mac mini is almost dead silent, but anything about Mac Pro noise level is acceptable).

 

Ideal components are Q6600 on Intel D975BX2 MB with 8800GT and 4GB DDR2, any advise on PSU and case? And how's hackintosh compare to a real macintosh in terms of stability and easy to update (Mac OSX 10.5.2 or so)?

 

Any inputs will be appreciated.

 

 

CP.

[Synaesthesia]

Well personally I think the 2.33ghz upgrade is good, but very pricey. Your mini will be about 50% faster overall, which is a lot, but if you build a Core 2 Quad system it will be way faster.

 

Yes, Apple make the quietest systems on the market today. It is possible to build as silent a computer, but it takes a bit of extra money and effort. Basically you wanna buy a good quality Antec case, a quiet power supply, CPU cooler, graphics card, and quiet system fans. The best resource for this is Silent PC Review, who are obsessives about silent computing.

 

That said, I would also consider selling your mini + screen & buying a new iMac, for about $500 more. The CPU, Graphics card and 3.5" HDD are all faster than your Mac mini, and the iMac is dead quiet.

 

OK so there are your two options. A hackintosh is quite tricky to set up sometimes, but once it's running on compatible hardware it's really 100% stable and fast. Updates used to be an annoyance, however with the new EFI emulator for Core 2 chips, Apple updates work as normal!

 

If you want a hackintosh, you must just surf around the forum for tutorials, guides and fixes, whereas if you get a mac, obviously it's just going to work perfectly from the beginning.

 

That's about it, ask if you want more info.